Apple weighs on Wall Street; oil, gold prices slip

People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File photo - RTSS1J0

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple’s results weighed on U.S. stock prices on Wednesday after the technology giant posted its first annual revenue decline since 2001, while oil and gold prices slipped.

Apple, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, fell 2.2 percent after it acknowledged strong demand for its iPhone 7 Plus caught the company off-guard and it was struggling to keep up with demand.

The technology giant pulled down the S&P 500 stock index and Nasdaq, but gains in Boeing bouyed the price-weighted Dow Industrials.

Boeing shares were trading at their highest level this year, after the world’s largest planemaker reported a jump in quarterly profit despite slower sales.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30.06 points, or 0.17 percent, to 18,199.33, the S&P 500 lost 3.73 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,139.43 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 33.13 points, or 0.63 percent, to 5,250.27.

Disappointing results and forecasts from some other major U.S. companies weighed on European and Asian stocks.

Oil prices bounced off session lows for a time after the U.S. government reported a surprise drawdown in crude inventories, but oil ended lower on growing doubts that OPEC would cut production enough to drain a global oversupply.

U.S. crude oil futures were at $49.17 a barrel, down 79 cents or 1.58 percent at 4:00 p.m. ET (2000 GMT). They had dipped to $48.87, the lowest since Oct. 4.

Brent crude was down 88 cents, or 1.73 percent, at $49.91, their weakest level in nearly a month.

The U.S. dollar dipped against a basket of major currencies, reflecting nervousness surrounding Federal Reserve monetary policy and the U.S. election, a day after touching a nearly nine-month high.

“We’ve had a dollar rally, and I think we’re in the consolidation phase,” said Vassili Serebriakov, FX strategist at Credit Agricole in New York. He noted the Fed’s November policy meeting and the Nov. 8 U.S. election as potential risks to the dollar’s upside.

Sterling recovered from Monday’s lows after Bank of England (BoE) governor Mark Carney said in a speech the central bank could not ignore the effect of sterling’s slide on inflation.

This increased expectations that policymakers would leave rates unchanged next week, rather than cut them as many had expected.

Sterling rose 0.43 percent to $1.2238, coming off Monday’s trough of $1.2081, which was the lowest level since the Oct. 7 “flash crash”.

U.S. Treasury debt yields also rose, bolstered by a fresh batch of economic data that enhanced the outlook for third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product data due on Friday.

Gains in Treasury yields also spurred rises in other global bond markets. But yields, which move inversely to prices, were capped as the decline in oil kept inflation expectations in check.

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